Cedar Manor
General information
LocationLinden Boulevard and Dillon Street
South Jamaica, Queens, New York City
Coordinates40°41′19″N 73°47′13″W / 40.688695°N 73.787013°W / 40.688695; -73.787013
Owned byLong Island Rail Road
Line(s)Atlantic Branch
Platforms2 side platforms
Tracks2
Other information
Station codeNone
Fare zone3
History
Opened1906
Closed1959
Former services
Preceding station Long Island
Rail Road 		Following station
Jamaica
toward Flatbush Avenue
 Atlantic Division Locust Manor
toward Valley Stream

Cedar Manor, originally named Power Place[1] was a railroad station along the Atlantic Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, in South Jamaica, in the New York City borough of Queens.

History

The station opened as a small one-story frame station here in 1906,[2][3] east of the track and north of what was then called Power Place,[4] which was later renamed 114th Avenue,[5] and finally renamed Linden Boulevard. Cedar Manor was a real estate development covering the neighborhood generally west and north of the crossing of the LIRR with New York Boulevard. Before World War I, it was a signal stop only.[6]

In 1948, the White Engineering Corporation completed a three-volume study for the Pennsylvania Railroad on how to save the Long Island Rail Road from bankruptcy and how to make it self-sufficient. This study, which was made public in August 1949, made several recommendations, including the abandonment of eleven LIRR stations to save $96,000, of which three (Atlantic Avenue, Inwood, and Merillon Avenue) were in Nassau County, and eight were in Queens, including Hamilton Beach, the Raunt, Elmhurst, Corona, Higbie Avenue, and Cedar Manor.[7][8]

In 1949, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) requested permission from the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) to discontinue this and Higbie Avenue station to reduce the cost of its planned project to eliminate grade crossings on the Atlantic Branch between Springfield Boulevard and South Road.[9] The PSC ordered the LIRR to construct twelve-car long high-level side platforms at both stations, along with shelters. The PSC had determined that ridership at the two stations was high enough to require their continuation.[10]

In 1955, the LIRR again requested permission from the PSC to discontinue this and Higbie Avenue station.[11] The LIRR claimed that while total ridership at the two stations was 15,000 and 28,400 in July 1949, respectively, ridership decreased by 70 percent at Cedar Manor, and by 60 at Higbie Avenue.[10] At a PSC hearing, a passenger representative of the LIRR said that alternate means of transportation from the two stations to Jamaica and Penn Station would only take ten minutes longer.[12]

On July 22, 1955, the PSC allowed the LIRR to close this station, but not the Higbie Avenue station. The PSC found that alternate transportation was available at Cedar Manor in the form of bus service, while there was none at Higbie Avenue. Cedar Manor was ordered to stay open until the temporary tracks for the grade crossing elimination project were installed.[13] The LIRR had stated that ridership had significantly declined at the two stations in recent years and that closing them would save $350,000.[14]

The station closed on January 28, 1959 and the building was razed in February 1959 as part of the grade crossing elimination project, and was ultimately discontinued as a station stop.[2][15]

References

  1. ^ Old Southern Road from Jamaica Station to Springfield Junction (Arrt's Arrchives)
  2. ^ a b David Keller; Steven Lynch (2005). Revisiting the Long Island Rail Road: 1925-1975. Arcadia Publishing. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-7385-3829-7.
  3. ^ Atlantic Division and Main Line timetable
  4. ^ O to Q Queens Street Name changes
  5. ^ 81 to 120 Queens Street Name changes
  6. ^ The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History Part Six The Golden Age 1881 – 1900 Archived April 19, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "State Can't Operate LIRR: Transit Board". Newsday. November 16, 1949. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  8. ^ "RR Denies Plea to Close 3 Depots". Newsday. November 23, 1949. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  9. ^ "Fight Closing of 2 LI Depots". New York Daily News. November 28, 1949. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  10. ^ a b "PSC Gets LIRR Plea to Give Up 2 Stations". New York Daily New. February 3, 1955. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  11. ^ "LIRR's Plea to Close Two Stations Fought". New York Daily News. February 6, 1955. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  12. ^ "Resume LIRR Station Drop Hearing May 4". New York Daily News. March 27, 1955. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  13. ^ "L.I. to Shut Station, Must Keep Another". The New York Times. July 23, 1955. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  14. ^ "LIRR Permitted to Shut Station". New York Daily News. July 23, 1955. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  15. ^ LIRR Station History (TrainsAreFun.com) Archived January 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
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